Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[bnjrob]

Well I took another look at the young birds (hatched May 1st to 17th) and I've decided to rehome the Light Sussex with the imperfect hackles. that means I have about 7 pullets and one or two roosters to move out. I think I'm going to end up with just three started pullets, no cockerel's. All in all , it's been a very disappointing hatching season.
Best,
Karen

Yep, I hear ya on that one - lousy hatching here too. Had some stuff come up and waited to long to pick breeders and start hatching - so fertility has been bad because I had too many hens per cock and then by the time I got the pens separated, it was too hot and nobody wanted to mate. I just had an incubator and humidifier bite the dust - in the middle of a turkey hatch. Not sure if the rest of the eggs are going to survive and finish hatching. I've decided that I'm calling it quits for this year. Too many issues to try to bother with hatching so late in the year. I am thinking I am going to build incubators this Autumn and then force lights on my breeder chicken hens during the winter to start hatching early and hopefully do better than this year. I only thought the last few years sucked because we kept getting flooded out, but this year has sucked the worst for getting hatching done. I feel like I've been doing nothing but feeding birds for no reason this year.

 

[NanaKat]

I've been battling raccoons that have been able to unlock the lids on my nest boxes. Changed latches, using traps and 22.
I have hatched over 100 this year and held them in the barn and two super secure pens. One last boar coon to get and I can move more juvies outside.
Sine the coon hit some of the breeders, so I'm down to two cocks and six hen's. I have not culled any juvies yet...the recovery process will be several years.

 

[bnjrob]

I've been battling raccoons that have been able to unlock the lids on my nest boxes. Changed latches, using traps and 22.
I have hatched over 100 this year and held them in the barn and two super secure pens. One last boar coon to get and I can move more juvies outside.
Sine the coon hit some of the breeders, so I'm down to two cocks and six hen's. I have not culled any juvies yet...the recovery process will be several years.

UGH. This has not been a good year for most people that I've talked to about raising poultry.

 

[NanaKat]

Got the boar coon a bit ago! Still on guard because there was a young male in the pear tree. Set the traps again tonight and set up the game camera.
Will start sorting the juvenile cockerels out tomorrow.

 

[3riverschick]

Oh I hope you get that little booger soon Nanakat . nothing worse than something prowling around the coops. whether they get in or not it's still stresses the chickens .
Karen

 

[YdogsflY]

It was an off year for me as well. Incubator troubles gave low hatching numbers. Only 1/4 of the chicks hatched that I wanted. So I will be upgrading to a better bator this winter.

Thankfully fertility and vigor is just fine in the flock and no predator problems so far.

I've been thinking about using lights in the breeding pens to hatch earlier. But I was able to set the first 40 eggs by the end of February. While earlier would be nice, I'm just not sure with the lousy weather we have in March (and all the way to June this year).

 

[3riverschick]

Crappy summer here in Western Pennsylvania. so many days it rains in the afternoon. just a bad year for poultry, I think .I ended up with three Keepers. the rest I'm going to rehome. not a rooster in the keeper bunch. I'm going to have to buy a rooster .so disappointing.
Karen

 

[YdogsflY]

Crappy summer here in Western Pennsylvania. so many days it rains in the afternoon. just a bad year for poultry, I think .I ended up with three Keepers. the rest I'm going to rehome. not a rooster in the keeper bunch. I'm going to have to buy a rooster .so disappointing.
Karen

We've been hot and dry out here in the South central pa. Thunderstorm here and there, but very little benefit. Around 90+ just about everyday. May was unseasonably cool and wet and set wild turkey and game birds hatches back. I haven't run the A/C this much in an entire summer since moving into this home.

Sorry to hear about your troubles Karen. I may have read, but don't remember, as to what your issue was with the hatching. I'm fairly certain ours was a draft problem on one side of the incubator kept temps lower on that side. Also had humidity issues and a malfunctioning thermometer/hygrometer unit that we put in the incubator to double check temps and humidity. Lots of almost/fully formed chicks that never pipped and some that pipped but didn't hatch. That was tough on my daughter to see that.

 

[3riverschick]

Yep dogsfly,
That was the condition of our eggs which didn't hatch. we think it was a power outage. the single chick which did hatch was small and weak. it was a light Sussex ex black copper Marans cross. we think its egg might have been in the back of the incubator so even with the power outage it stayed warmer. Maybe or maybe it wasn't quite as well developed for long as the other birds so I wasn't as delicate I don't know but that's the only one I hatched out of 18 eggs so yeah rat summer hopefully fall will be better but the good news is my son who's in the Coast Guard is coming home for a visit Friday and haven't seen him in over 3 years. so I'm really excited about that so don't expect me to post anything on Friday because Owen will be home .
Best,
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

$30 worth of eggs (18) down the drain and all I got was a crossbred chick that I sold for $4. Test of the season resulted in 3 quality Light Sussex pullets. Out of about 35 eggs set all season.
I'm looking forward to next year.